December 2015

Viewing posts from December , 2015

I’ve been meaning to try roasting my own turkey for a while now. At our last GobbleFest I only made the sides and we bought our turkey from Turkey Point Cafe, which has since closed shop. The years after that there were issues getting halal turkey, and there was one year when all the suppliers just decided to protest and not import turkeys at all. This year, finally we are seeing an abundance of imported and local halal turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas (Cold Storage was selling them for RM29.90/ kg at one point and I missed out – darn!), and I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity again. GobbleFest 2015 is on! The menu:

Handling a turkey was definitely interesting; I underestimated the effort it took even to just cart it around the kitchen, and butterflying it wasn’t as straightforward as it is with chicken, with random hard-to-cut bones along the backbone I had to manoeuvre around with my kitchen shears. When roasting, I should’ve followed my gut and tested it for doneness instead of following the recipe cooking time too faithfully, so I ended up with a slightly overcooked turkey. Nonetheless, butterflying the turkey and cooking at a high temperature created such crispy skin and cooked the turkey super-fast, so this is the only way I’ll roast my turkey. Brining the turkey gave it amazing flavor, which makes this recipe a keeper. All in all it was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait for next year’s Gobblefest!

Since turkey is conventionally served with stuffing… well, here we are. I don’t really know what “good” stuffing is supposed to taste like, or what the texture is supposed to be, but I’m told it is supposed to have a pudding-like texture. This recipe definitely had a soft texture, very much like a savoury bread pudding, and taste-wise it is quite decent, but Rudy still doesn’t care for it so maybe my search for the perfect stuffing recipe continues. My conclusion for this recipe: the taste of your sausages will greatly determine how your dish will taste, so pick a sausage you really like!

I made this a day ahead; after transferring the stuffing to the baking dish, I let it cool before wrapping it with aluminium foil and sticking it in the fridge. I let it sit at room temperature for over an hour, before finishing it in the oven.

We need our filler for Gobblefest, and I can’t make everything in the oven because the turkey’s gonna be roasting there, so I decided on this super simple, super basic mashed potatoes recipe. Guests totally kicked it up by adding bacon bits, spring onions, the turkey gravy, even the cauliflower soup.

When putting together the menu for this year’s GobbleFest, I asked the Round Knights for suggestions and Azuan pointed out that we were missing a bakery item. Serious Eats had already put together an amazing classic Thanksgiving menu, and this cornbread recipe was on the list, so I decided to try it out.

I’ve tried other cornbread recipes, and while some were okay, Rudy liked none of them – too grainy, too dry, etc. That was until he tried this one; moist and soft and buttery with yummy salty bits, this is definitely my new go-to cornbread recipe from now on.

One must have soup as a starter for any dinner party (well, mine at least), and this recipe by SeriousEats caught my eye. Not only were we able to fulfil our veg quota for the night (together with the stuffing), the garnishing that came with this hearty soup was also great for kicking up our mashed potatoes. And yes, this was absolutely delicious and was the first dish to run out. I served this with home-made white bread.

One thing to note is, unlike conventional bacon which apparently renders tons of fat when cooked, beef bacon (or breakfast beef, oh ye sensitive ones) is too lean and renders virtually nothing if cooked without adding any fat. So I added a generous amount of olive oil in hopes it will absorb enough flavour from the bacon to give the soup its smoky taste.

Those who have had the privilege of tasting Kak’mbang’s cooking know that she’s a really good cook, so I am making it a personal mission to document her amazing recipes and to photograph her in action. This is something that is surprisingly difficult, because she’s always done cooking by the time I get home from work or grocery shopping.

Today I finally managed to catch her making one of her signature dishes, nasi minyak with chicken kurma. Purists may complain that her version isn’t exactly real nasi minyak, but to heck with it, I say. This dish has made an appearance at almost every Hari Raya do we’ve had since I was little, and is generally a crowd pleaser.